Gold Price Slightly Down Just Ahead Of Pending U.S. Rate Hike

March 15, 2017

New York (Mar 15)  Gold prices are slightly lower in subdued early U.S. trading Wednesday. Much of the world marketplace has been quieter this week, ahead of this afternoon’s conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting. April Comex gold was last down $1.20 an ounce at $1,201.30. May Comex silver was last up $0.002 at $16.93 an ounce.

Focus of the world marketplace is on the conclusion of the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) that began Tuesday and ends this afternoon with a statement and a press conference from Fed Chair Janet Yellen. It’s widely expected the FOMC will raise U.S. interest rates by 0.25% today. However, markets have already factored in the likely rate hike announcement, so keener focus will be on the Fed statement and Yellen’s comments at her press conference regarding the pace of U.S. interest rate increases in the coming months.

Many markets could become more active Wednesday afternoon, in reaction to the FOMC statement and Yellen’s remarks.

Other central banks scheduled to hold monetary policy meetings this week include the U.K., Japan, Norway, Indonesia and Turkey. The central banks of the world are shifting from a general posture of easing monetary policy, to one of starting to tighten monetary policy after several years of extraordinarily low interest rates.

The key outside markets on Wednesday morning see the U.S. dollar index trading slightly lower. The dollar index is still in a price uptrend and has benefitted recently on the likelihood of a U.S. interest rate hike coming today. Nymex crude oil prices are higher today on a corrective bounce after hitting a four-month low Tuesday. The oil market has been in a tailspin, which has somewhat dented worldwide investor and trader risk appetite, and has been a significantly bearish element for much of the raw commodity sector.

There is a heavy slate of U.S. economic data due for release Wednesday, including the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, the consumer price index, real earnings, retail sales, the Empire State manufacturing survey, the NAHB housing market index, Treasury international capital data, and the weekly DOE liquid energy stocks report

Source: KitcoNews

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